Challenge yourself to tat 25 motifs within the next 12 months and show us your progress. A motif can be a medallion, snowflake, heart, bookmark, butterfly, earrings or any small piece of tatting. Tell us where the pattern is from or if it's original. Post pictures on your blog, web page or photo page. Add a comment below the current post giving the location of your pictures and you will be added to the list of links.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Corina has chosen to needle tat a heart by Rozella L. Linden aka Ruth Perry for her first challenge piece.

Sue tatted the Ruffle-Edged Snowflake from Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman and she liked the way it looked without the final round so she started a second one. She may have to do more for her daughter who really liked it.Agasunset has some more pieces with skull decoration and she's working in black which seems to suit her mood. The Art Deco piece she's working on in purple is coming along. Paula tatted two more crosses and finds that she is learning something new each time.Liz tatted this motif found on the Lady Lace Tatting blog which she tatted in Lizbeth thread.

IsDihara will tat a heart originally designed by Myrtle Hamilton in honour of International Tatting Day. Myrtle Hamilton was a prolific designer who passed away in 2003 at the ripe old age of 104. The heart, shown here was done by Terry Mcguffin who re-wrote the pattern to incorporate split rings and chains so that it could be tatted continuously, without all of the cut and ties in the original design.

Fox has finished tatting Vinnie's Spring Doily in Altin Basak #50.Heather has tatted a beaded hummingbird and a beaded swan for Tatting Tea Tuesday.Martha has been trying to blog at least once a week, but although she's been tatting, and there's lots of evidence of tatting. There still isn't anything finished to show.Sherry's tatting has been taking a different form lately. First of all there's the new copper shuttle. Then, there's a set of hook pens with an entire doily design split up into slivers on each pen. Finally there are some new green ware designs with embossed tatting.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Corina has decided to join the challenge. Her blog is currently showing a lovely Magnolia that she did at a workshop.Carolyn has completed Snowflake 6 from Festive Snowflakes & Ornaments edited by Barbara Foster in an unknown blue size 30 thread.Agasunset was on the hunt for glass beads when she found some metal beads instead and used them to create a necklace and bracelet. Ann thinks tatting is tough and to prove it she shows us the tatting on her baby's dresses that has stood up well to baby play, baby spills and continual laundering. Heather thought that the earring motif might look good as a necklace, but when she had it done she didn't like it, at least not as a necklace. Her heart for the March heart of the month is done in time for the month end. Jeff tatted Motif 2 from Festive Snowflakes & Ornaments For Needle and Shuttle Tatters edited by Barbara Foster in Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #105 and #122. He has plans for a project but he's keeping it secret for now.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Paula is offering this as a giveaway in honour of International Tatting Day.Tatteristic is fascinated with Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns and this one is the Clover pattern that she tatted using her new Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle.IsDihara is on to round 3 of the fair doily and found it was ruffling quite a bit. Then she used a quick zap of steam to block it and it's laying out flat. Using different size threads can have undesirable effects on your lace. and blocking in between rows gives you a better idea of how it's working. Zapping lace with the steam iron helps to do near instant blocking with cotton tatting, but don't do it with tatting that incorporates either blending filaments, which are mostly plastic, or beads that are plastic. I've had them melt into my pressing cloth, which, fortunately at the time was a paper towel, so nothing was ruined but the tatting. Mica finishes her first 25 with the Fifteenth Day of December from Bjørn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting. Made with 1 strand of DMC metallic floss.Vinnie was having a lazy Sunday afternoon so she decided to sketch some ideas and of course she had to tat what she sketched and then take it for a photo shoot. Here they are, lovely pink and black earrings.Bonnie wants to enjoy the process of tatting and not focus so much on the end results so that less than perfect results won't bother her so much.Aileen figured out how to tat over a curtain ring with the help of Jon's book, Tatting with Rings and finished Kejora in size 40 Milford thread with size 11/0 haematite coloured beads and a black crystal.Anne has fixed the motifs on row 11, finished row 12 and now she's on to row 13. The end is in sight!Fox tried so very hard to complete the heart with the vibrant Corsage HDT, but in the end, the thread ran out. So she started again in teal, with #50 Altin Basak which she had found too soft and floppy in the past, but as it happens her tension has improved since the last time she used this thread and the finished tatting feels quite stiff. Hooray practice! Fox has shown both pieces side by side so that the size difference can be seen. There are four repeats in the teal and only three in the Corsage. Heather has tatted the same design once with 2 shuttles and once using SCMR and she'd like opinions on which looks better.M tatted motif 13 from the book The Tatted Artistry Of Teiko Fujito in Lizbeth 40, col 613, golden yellow medium, although it took a bit of blocking to get it to lay flat. Now she wants to find something a little larger to tackle but she can't find anything she likes. TattingChic is offering this Learn to Tat book in her blogaversary giveaway.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sue tatted the Christmas tree from Be-Stitched.com and emptied some shuttles making butterflies. She has the 5th round done on her doily and took a break from it to try out the Button Cross by Birgit Phelps but it didn't work. She likes how the clovers turned out so she tried to make something all on her own. She's calling it a bookmark. Shhhh! don't tell anyone, that's where a lot of patterns come from. Ann shows us a left over length of tatting used to trim the little one's dress and she also points us to someone who has just succumbed to the lure of tatting.

Steph has unveiled the project she gave us a sneak peek at earlier. It's one of Adelheid Dangela's Kirsten butterfly that she tatted with size 80 threads in DMC black and yellow, a vintage J&P Coats in red for the three-ring clovers and Tatskool's 'Flame Lantana' for the four-ring clovers. It's an absolutely stunning butterfly that looks like it's about to take flight.Vinnie has another picture of her Spring Doily heart, this one tatted by Mageretha. She's excited that she has been asked by Georgia to teach the Spring Doily Pattern and the heart on March 29th. Anne took a break from reconstructing the large doily and tatted Motif 10 from the book Tatting the Gr-8 Self-Closing Mock Ring by the Shuttle Brothers.Fox thinks she has finally mastered Vinnie's heart, only now she's worried that she may not have enough of the Corsage HDT to finish it.Heather's latest project is ready to get flung out the window, except that it's attached to her new shuttle.Maria has been participating in Valentine's exchange and making tatted pieces for a crazy quilt block. The tatted snowflakes were embellished with hearts and beads and stitched onto a fabric postcard. The tatted hearts were mounted in acrylic hearts. The little flowers for crazy quilting have been embellished with beads.

Marty modified "Ice Crystal" from Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs by using only six repeats of the pattern instead of eight then for the bottom she used the diamond motif made by the pattern with six repeats instead of four.